From: VTA Board Secretary <
[email protected]> Sent: Monday, April 8, 2019 4:31 PM To: VTA Board of Directors <
[email protected]> Subject: From VTA: April 8, 2019 Media Clips VTA Daily News Coverage for Monday, April 8, 2019 1. For struggling VTA, an existential crisis: How to woo riders amid budget cuts? (East Bay Times) 2. VTA Service Changes (KCBS-AM) 3. VTA recommends saving Route 22 overnight bus (San Jose Spotlight) For struggling VTA, an existential crisis: How to woo riders amid budget cuts? (East Bay Times) For Judy Purrington, the latest round of service reductions proposed for the Valley Transportation Authority’s buses and light rail lines feels like death by a thousand cuts. Purrington, who heads the advocacy group, Silicon Valley Transit Users, has seen this happen before. For at least the past decade — ever since the Great Recession forced layoffs, service reductions and fare hikes — fighting just to maintain the system has been mostly a losing battle. And although the VTA’s latest plan staves off cuts that would affect some of Santa Clara County’s most vulnerable residents, the continued erosion of service will only serve to do one thing, she said: turn off more riders. Because of budget cuts, the VTA is proposing 63, mostly small, curtailing its service, often in the form of reducing weekend service or eliminating it altogether, shaving off a few hours at the start or end of the schedule, or running buses less frequently. One bus route, the 65, will be eliminated entirely, as will light rail service along the Almaden spur, which affects two stations.